A blog of Worldview Resources International

In memoriam: Dr. Cornelis Trimp (1926-2012)

LEUSDEN — On Friday, 9 March 2012, Cornelis (Kees) Trimp passed away at the age of 86. He had retired as Professor of Ministerial Studies (ambtelijke vakken) at the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated), in Kampen. He had begun this labor following the church split within the Reformed Churches Liberated at the end of the 1960s. His contribution helped, on the one hand, to set the direction of the consolidation within his denomination after the split, and on the other hand, to cultivate a more outwardly focused orientation in his denomination.

Cornelis Trimp was born on 18 January 1926 in Amsterdam. He obtained his ministerial training at the Theological College in Kampen. On 11 February 1951 he was ordained and installed in his first congregation in the Frisian village of Twijzel. Thereafter he served churches in Middelburg (1955), Voorburg (1961), and Groningen North (1967).

On 29 June 1961, Professor Trimp obtained his doctorate at the Theological College in Kampen, with a dissertation entitled, “Om de oeconomie van het welbehagen. Een analyse van de idee der ‘Heilsgeschichte’ in de ‘Kirchliche Dogmatik’ van K. Barth” (“Concerning the Economy of God’s Good Pleasure. An Analysis of the Idea of ‘Salvation History’ in the ‘Church Dogmatics’ of K. Barth”).

In 1970, shortly after the split in the Reformed Churches Liberated, which led to the formation of the Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken (literally, Netherlands Reformed Churches, not to be confused with the North American denomination of that name), Trimp was appointed as professor at the Theological College in Kampen. He fulfilled this function until 1 January 1993. The teaching area of the new professor encompassed the ministerial subjects of homiletics (preaching), catechetics (church education), liturgics (worship), poimenics (pastoral care), and diaconate (ministry of mercy).

Illustrative of the relationships existing when the new professor began was the impossibility of using the church building across from the university for his inauguration. That building had come to be owned by the Netherlands Reformed people. For that reason, the faculty used the church of the Reformed Congregation (Gereformeerde Gemeente, equivalent to the North American Netherlands Reformed denomination), where Trimp gave his inaugural address, entitled “The Warrant for the Ministry of Reconciliation.”

His involvement, from 1956-1992, with the church magazine De Reformatie ensured that the voice of Professor Trimp carried weight. He played an active role in keeping members together in the church after the split. He disapproved of the so-called Open Brief (Open Letter) that had formed the occasion for the church split, and he defended the synodical decisions relating to it. On the other hand, he later regretted the course of events during the 1960s. In so doing, however, he did not distance himself from what had flowed from his sharp pen during that period.

Various publications appeared under the authorship of Professor Trimp, such as Ministerium. An Introduction to the Reformational Doctrine of Office (1982), Word in Writing. Theological Reflection on the Authority of the Bible (2002, with essays from A. L. Th. de Bruine, J. J. T. Doedens, and B. Kamphuis), and the most well-known, Sound and Resonance. Through Preaching to Faith-Experience (1989). In that latter work, he disagreed equally with rationalism in preaching and with the experientialism of the Dutch Second Reformation.

Professor Trimp saw the pendulum swing throughout church history between subjective preaching and objective preaching. Each contains a danger of excess, he observed. Professor Trimp saw as one benefit of the Liberation (the church split in the 1940s) that someone like Benne Holwerda showed how both types of preaching were incorrect. “What is involved primarily is neither the subjective engagement of the heart nor the objective declaration of doctrine, but the address of the speaking God in the covenant,” wrote Professor Trimp in Sound and Resonance. That points to salvation outside of ourselves, in Christ, claimed Trimp. Therefore he pleaded for “a hearty preaching of Christ.”

Professor Trimp resisted the theological line of the principal leader of the 1940s church split known as the Liberation, Professor K. Schilder, who claimed that there is an unconditional promise of salvation for those baptized who are elect, and a universal offer of grace for the other ones who are baptized. Promise and covenant are equivalent and call us to faith, claimed Professor Trimp. That faith is not without feeling, for it involves the entire person. The sound of God’s Word will not bounce off like the noise of an echo, but will resonate within the human heart, wrote the professor in Sound and Resonance.

In the same book Professor Trimp pleaded for entering into relationships with other churches, such as the Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken (literally, Christian Reformed Churches, equivalent to the Free Reformed Churches in North America, and not to be confused with the Christian Reformed Church in North America). Within a climate where there was more room for faith-experience, the professor saw possibilities for effecting more unity between the Liberated Reformed Churches and the Christian Reformed Churches.

In addition, during the 1990s he expressed himself positively regarding liturgical renewal. Already in 1983 he had reflected on this subject in The Church and Its Liturgy. In that book he pleaded for, among other things, the congregation singing the Amen after the sermon.

The professor valued uniformity in worship, but had no objection against adaptations as long as they were not in conflict with reverence during the congregation’s worship.

Professor Trimp will be buried on Thursday in Leusden, where he resided.

(This article appeared originally in Dutch in Reformatorisch Dagblad on 12-03-2012. Translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman.)

* * *

Addendum: In addition to the books authored by C. Trimp mentioned above, readers may find English translations of the following helpful:C. Trimp, Preaching and the History of Salvation: Continuing and Unfinished Discussion, translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman (copyright 1996)